davell

Which Cub fans? The ones who want Ryno to manage and Stone back in the booth? Or The ones who want the Cubs to consider newer ways of thinking? Good question. I guess I'm hoping he comes in and is willing to spend some money, but does it in a way like the Red Sox seem to do.

I read somewhere that Kaplan had someone who knew Ricketts on his show and he said that Cub fans will LOVE what he has to say at his first press conference.

:rotfl: :D Crap. I guess I should have rapport......

Contact is about his only question mark though, isn't it? Granted, it's obviously a huge one. Or are we thinking power is still a question as well?

If Jackson can turn into a solid CFer whp has 20/20 ability with solid OBP as well, he'd be worth a ton though. Maybe that's what Callis is thinking?

I like the move alot. Hopefully, he can help Soriano out and get him back to where we need him to be. He had a good repor with Bradley too, didn't he? I know we are hellbent on trading him, but if anything could be done to try to make the marriage work, it'd probably be best for team from a payroll aspect anyway, considering what we'll probably have to pay to move him.

I'm starting to wonder if Vitters could fall into the 75ish area on the BA top 100.

Yeah, as much as I'd love to add a player of Halladay's caliber, with our current payroll issues(possibly anyway, depending on what Ricketts wants to do) I wouldn't make the deal. We are definitely going to need some of these youngsters to fill into our everyday lineup soon and considering both Castro and Vitters at least have all star POTENTIAL, the risk of a move like that is too great, if you ask me, epsecially considering Halladay's age. I would rather see us get younger.

What do we see Vitters' upside as being?

If he's ready in 2010, I guess Theriot would move over to 2B? Maybe even a platoon with Fontenot possibly? Not really sure how I feel about moving Castro THIS fast, but he's certainly handled everything this year as well or better than anyone could have hoped for.

I'd pass on all the SS honestly. Drew is a definite upgrade, but he'll cost alot in terms of prospects. I'd rather use Theriot for one more year and see what Castro can do in 2011 or even sooner, if he keeps progressing at his current rate. I don't see Crosby or Greene as anything more than backups at this point and Wood has yet to prove anything at the major league level and could possibly be a downgrade from Theriot even I'm definitely on board with Hudson or Iwamura. I'd be good with Cameron, OK with Hermida as an alternative to Reed, but not as a starter. Would love Crawford. Definitely want to see some sort of SP, don't see us shelling out big bucks though, so a high upside guy like Harden or Bedard would be great, if you asked me. Honestly, I don't want to see us spend a cent on the bullpen this offseason, especially if they re-sign Grabow. We've got enough in house guys to put together a decent pen.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/online/majors/espn-chat/2009/268994.html I guess on talent/ability, Vitters is more likely, but one of the shortstops will have to definitely switch a position if they develop. It does make me wonder on the potential for one of the shortstops to go to 3rd, although I still think it's more likely that one of them goes to either 2nd (Castro) or CF (Lee). I wouldn't move Lee to 2nd as I think he can be better utilized in CF. If Castro makes it to the bigs as a SS and it looks like he's gonna be able to stay there, I wouldn't be surprised for Lee to turn into trade bait. I kind of like the idea of at least TRYING to turn him into a CFer at that point. I'd like to see as many home grown guys as possible.

Keith Law or someone else, can't remember, was tweeting Cashner's FB velocity during the 1st inning. He was mostly 94-95, but got up to 98 once.

Keith Law just tweeted that whatever the Cubs paid for Starlin Castro, it was a bargain.

AZ Phil said Dolis really turned some heads today. He adamantly said Dolis WILL get picked by someone if he's not added to the 40 man this offseason. He said if it were up to him, he'd add Gaub, Dolis, Castillo, and Parker. He wouldn't lose sleep over Adduci, Camp, Clevenger, Robinson, Mathes, or Papelbon.

We are not one of the 7 teams Kikuchi is meeting with from major league baseball. He still hasn't decided whether or not he's coming either.

Nice pick. :-))

AZ Phil remarked he thinks the Cubs see LeMahieu as a 2B longterm and he's been working there in Arizona alot. He expects him to start the year at Daytona in 2010.

Tim Brown from Yahoo tweeted that the only way Tampa would consider adding Bradley would be if we ate SO MUCH of the contract, that they could release him at any point basically without taking a hit.

Hudson was looking for 5-45 or close to that this past offseason.

AZ Phil made the observation in his latest update, that he would expect Rusin to start next year at Daytona and Raley to begin at Peoria.

In all likelihood, we're going to have to hear the announcers talk tomorrow about how "great" and "smart" the Cardinal fans are when Holliday comes up for the first time and he gets cheered. Of course, it'd be funny as hell if they booed him.

Damn, I'm shocked at Cashner's exclusion AND Jackson being 11th. I kind of figured it'd be the other way around really. I really don't see us getting 6 into the top 100 at any rate and considering Cashner didn't crack the top 20 here, even if he would have been pretty high on the FSL list, I think he's going to miss out. Jay could wind up near the very bottom of the top 100, but I could see us winding up with 3 just as easily as 5 or 6. Castro and Vitters are locks and I think Lee makes it as well at this point. Brett Jackson is probably better than 50-50 to make it too considering the comments about him and Jay Jackson probably is right around 50-50 as well now. So, in the end, I guess I'd put the percentages something like this for the Cubs as a whole: 2 in the top 100 100% 3 in the top 100 95% 4 in the top 100 75% 5 in the top 100 40% 6 in the top 100 15% At any rate, I think our system as a whole takes a very solid step forward, up to the 12-15 range for this upcoming season and should be higher than that going forward from there. I doubt any of these guys graduate in 2010, and some guys can still take big steps forward as well. Burke and Rhee could make alot of noise next year, along with someone like Na, Jung, or Kim. Either of Flaherty or LeMahieu could as well for that matter. I actually could see where Vitters and Cashner are the 2 guys out of our top 6 that conceivably could see their values drop the most within the next year personally. If Vitters struggles in Daytona next year or Cashner is put into the pen being the 2 easiest ways for that to happen. Of course, Brett could struggle with K's and drop his value a good bit too, I suppose. But, for now, I'm more worried about Vitters and Cashner than him. To me, the threesome of Castro, Lee, and Jay Jackson are the ones that I'm least worried about anyway. It wouldn't SHOCK me to see Castro and Jay get some love at Spring Training next season to be honest. But, I'd think that both stay in the minors for all or at least almost all of 2010.

No. He may get mentioned as someone who would make the list if he did though.

I thought he was supposed to be a type a? I don't think that the "official" list has come out, but the last Elias rankings had him as a "B" and over on TCR they mentioned that Levine had said or wrote today that even now, we won't be offering arbitration to him. :banghead: